MMORPG: Crowd Control

Smither Gary chuckled heartily when Lei Zhen managed to see through his agenda right away, and on the dot as well.

"Indeed, once you learn how to smith from me, I would no longer assist you anymore. I'm too used to my idle lifestyle where I don't have to work for anyone- even if that person is Mistress Doreah." Smither Gary said, his face flashing a bit of bitterness.

Lei Zhen remained silent when he heard that, not knowing what to say.

As much as he wanted Smither Gary to keep working for him, he knew that was an impossible task.

Smither Gary might be an NPC, but the NPC in Magnolia are so real that it was hard to even differentiate them from actual players. Thus, Lei Zhen wouldn't force someone to do something that they don't want to do, especially when they aren't his enemies.

"I understand, Smither Gary. But we can save that kind of talk for the future since who knows if you would ever change your mind?" Lei Zhen finally said after remaining silent for a few minutes.

"Heh, at least you have some decency in you and not all that crook." Smither Gary smirked as he began to retrieve his heavy hammer.

Afterward, he began to explain the step-by-step process to Lei Zhen, teaching him everything from scratch.

And of course, even though Lei Zhen could memorize his teaching, there were still things that he was unable to comprehend. It was the same as if a person was reading a textbook and needed to re-read many times to understand the concept.

Unknowingly, Lei Zhen had already attained a status called Apprentice.

The Apprentice was an exclusive title under Smither Gary in which Lei Zhen would receive a boost in his smithing work and the possibility of creating a high-quality weapon. Except the possibility was really low- to the point of it being nonexistent since it was 0.0001%.

The possibility was that low, but Lei Zhen wasn't surprised by the percentage. After all, he had just gotten started with blacksmithing and had zero knowledge regarding the technical stuff.

"Stop idling, Lei Zhen. This is an important part." Smither Gary's voice suddenly echoed, notifying Lei Zhen to not be in a daze.

Lei Zhen nodded his head and realized Smither Gary was pulling out some carved cores from his pocket.

"Are those monster cores?" Lei Zhen asked.

"These are high-leveled monsters that have been mutated around the wasteland field. Each of their cores is unique and contains a large amount of potent mana that could withstand the hammering process." Smither Gary took the time to explain how the monster cores were obtained.

During the hammering process, Smither Gary slowed down his action to remind Lei Zhen of each important point that he needed to watch out for when hammering.

"Right here, you see that there's a crack appearing? It means that the hammering was too hard and needed to be lowered to make sure each of the surfaces was equal."

"So like an equilibrium force of the material?"

"Right, just like an equilibrium force. One mustn't be impatient when hammering because this is tedious and mentally tasking work to do." Smither Gary said in a somewhat surprised tone.

In the beginning, Lei Zhen was a complete newbie when it came to blacksmithing, but over time, Smither Gary came to realize that Lei Zhen was like a magnet. The moment you feed him some knowledge, he would easily absorb the knowledge and compile them into something that he could comprehend.

'This brat indeed has talents. No wonder why Mistress Doreah allowed Candice to be under him.' Smither Gary exclaimed inwardly.

Time slowly passed by, and Smither Gary soon managed to produce a Bolten Artifact.

"Here, take a look." Smither Gary didn't even bat an eyelid and threw the Bolten Artifact casually to Lei Zhen for inspection.

The moment Lei Zhen held the Bolten Artifact, he quickly read the description of the item.

[Item: Bolten Artifact

Description: An artifact that would instantly teleport the user into a designated church they had set in place without any consequences. Unable to be interrupted or disabled by any means possible unless the user itself cancels the process.]

Lei Zhen was astonished to see such an amazing artifact that was practically equivalent to a unique item. Just like the Bolten Artifact name itself, this artifact allowed the user to bolt away from a scene that was unfavorable to them whenever they wanted.

And to make things even more broken, this artifact could not be disabled or interrupted by any outside force unless the user wanted to cancel it.

As Lei Zhen was staring at the Bolten Artifact as if he was holding a pot of gold that would propel his wealth to a new height if he was able to produce such an item to sell, Smither Gary suddenly snatched the artifact back.

"Impressive, right?" Smither Gary laughed and placed the Bolten Artifact into his pocket. Afterward, he placed three carved monster cores on the table and smiled wickedly at Lei Zhen.

Instantly, Lei Zhen's face turned dark as he glared at Smither Gary.

"Heh, as expected of the clever brat. You already knew what I wanted to say with just a few context clues." He laughed cheekily.

"You are seriously overestimating my ability, Smither Gary." Lei Zhen cursed. It was crystal clear that Smither Gary wanted Lei Zhen to use the three carved monster cores to craft the Bolten Artifact himself. And that was with only one demonstration.

Even if he was a talented person, it would be impossible to completely replicate his work right away.

"You are the one underestimating your ability, Lei Zhen. Do you even know that you're my first official apprentice compared to others in the past that begged me to take them in? My eyes aren't wrong and you should be capable of reproducing what I just did within 3 attempts."

Smither Gary said and headed toward the backroom, not giving Lei Zhen a chance to rebuke his claim.